Nikita Gusev (pictured) had a successful debut for Amur Khabarovsk, assisting on the capping goal of a 5-1 victory over Novokuznetsk. Gusev played 11:36 in the match. Khabarovsk faces Novosibirsk tomorrow. There's nothing quite like the Thanksgiving tradition that is Novosibirsk hockey in the KHL.

Victor Hedman had helpers in triplicate, including 2 on the power play, in Astana's 3-0 blanking of Traktor Chelyabinsk. Hedman played 23:04 in the match. Nikita Nesterov played just 1:32 in the game for Traktor, his first since returning from the Subway Super Series. Chelyabinsk faces Khanty-Mansiysk next on Friday while Astana gets Magnitogorsk.

NHLer Ilya Kovalchuk scored his 11th goal of the season to help lead St. Petersburg to a 3-2 win over Severstal Cherepovets. Former Lightning draft pick Denis Kazionov[15] was out of the lineup for Cherepovets in the match. Severstal faces Dynamo Moscow on Friday.

Swedish star Martin Thornberg had 2 goals and 1 assist to lead Novgorod in a 4-1 thrashing of Slovan Bratislava. Thornberg has been a fixture on Sweden Euro Hockey Tour teams over the past several seasons. Slovan plays Mytischi on Friday.

Note that today's action was the first time this season that all Lightning prospects in the Russian leagues were in uniform for their respective KHL teams.